Alastriona
by SweeneyLovett
Summary: The Edison Group has found Derek, Simon, Tori and Chloe again. And this time, they're not settling for "bring them back alive". They want the children dead, and come very close to getting it their way. Until Alastriona shows up, with Hell in tow.
1. Chapter 1

_Run, _a voice kept whispering in my ear. _Run, keep going, don't stop, run, keep going, don't stop…_

And so I ran; from what, I wasn't sure. I looked behind me, and all I could see monsters – tons of them, drool gathering at their mouths, their eyes wild with madness. They had sharp fangs for teeth and enormous claws where their hands should've been.

I panicked, which made me run faster. Amazingly, I didn't need to stop.

Until I reached the door, that is.

A wooden door with strange markings on it and a silver doorknob. Walls of blue-white fire were on either side of the door, making the door the only entryway to freedom. Before I could reach for the door, though, it began to shake, as though something from the other side was hitting it with great force.

Growling came from behind the door; so loud it rang in my ears. I started to back away, but stopped when I realized that the monsters were still behind me.

I was torn: what to choose? Face the monsters, or face the wrath of whatever was behind that door?

I turned back to the door, but before I could take another step, the door flew open, and the hottest white fire flew out and incinerated everything for as far as I could see.

Then, I was on fire. I kept choking on the fire, my lungs burning, my flesh turning into ash. And I kept burning, along with everything else, until there was nothing left but a pile of gray ash, which the wind blew away, particle by particle.

I woke up screaming.

It took me a moment to realize that what I had dreamt was just that – a dream.

But, when I managed to calm down, I realized that someone was banging at the door to my room, and that something slightly smelled like smoke. I looked over at Tori's bed and saw that she was stirring, her eyes fluttering.

"Chloe!" I heard a voice yell. "Open the door!" It was Derek.

But just as Derek was saying this, he broke down the door.

"Derek!" I heard Tori scream. "What are you doing?!"

Without warning, he took hold of my arm and dragged me out of my room, where I saw that the house was on fire, the wood already burnt black from the flames. Horror dawned on me, and I couldn't move. Tori, when she came out, let out a piercing shriek that rang in my ears. Immediately she began to run down the flaming stairs.

Derek and I followed her, but half-way down, I realized that I was missing something. I pulled back from Derek, but he just kept tugging me along.

"Derek!" I screamed. "Derek, stop!"

"Come on, Chloe!" He grunted.

I tried pulling back again, and this time Derek did stop.

"Chloe, stop resisting, we need to move!"

I shook my head. "No, not without my necklace!"

He gave me a confused look, as though the fumes might have gone to my head.

"What?!"

I pointed back up the stairs. "The necklace my mother gave me, it's still in my room!"

"You're going to have to leave it behind!"

"No!" I screamed. Tears, already pooling in my eyes from the fire, spilled over, running down my cheeks. It was becoming harder and harder to breathe, and I definitely wanted out, but not without my mothers' necklace. It was my most precious belonging.

Derek gave an exasperated sigh and let go of my hand. He ran up the stairs, yelling behind him, "Keep going, don't wait for me!"

I did as he said and ran to the bottom; I didn't want to be on the top step when the stairs broke down. However, I didn't keep going after that; instead I waited for him. I wasn't going to leave him behind.

Looking around me, I saw that it was getting worse: most of the furniture was already ash by now and the roof had already caved in on itself in some places. My heart was beating a mile a minute; the part of my dream where I was burning alive kept replaying in my head. Every time I inhaled, I began to cough, feeling like I was choking.

Soon enough, Derek came running down the stairs, covering his mouth with his shirt. I thought it was a good idea, and did the same with my own shirt. It didn't completely filter out the toxic air, but it helped.

"Chloe, go!" I heard Derek's muffled yell just before the stairs beneath his feet gave out.

"Derek!" I screamed. But it was no use, as soon as he hit the ground, he shot up and ran. As he passed by me, he grabbed my arm, leading me to the exit.

As we ran, I felt engulfed by the flames, which surrounded us. I kept expecting to find myself on fire, burning just as I had in that dream. But, miraculously, Derek and I managed to avoid the flames.

When I saw the exit, a burst of joy went through me. I knew Derek was excited too, because he ran faster than before, propelling us towards the door that led outside.

_Yes, yes, yes!_

But then, when we were about fifteen feet away from the door, the roof a few feet in front of us caved, blocking us in.

"_No!!_"

Derek immediately stopped in his tracks, tugging me backwards.

"I'm going to throw you over!" Derek yelled, and, before I could even say anything, he picked me up by the waist and threw me over to the other side. I landed on my back, and lay there paralyzed for a moment, before moving to my feet. I placed my hand on the doorknob, but it was extremely hot, and I pulled my hand away.

The panic finally set in, and I couldn't register anything anymore. Derek landed beside me, but I barely noticed his presence. He reached for the door as I did, but I knew it was of no use. He pulled back in alarm just as I did.

_This is it, _I thought. _I'm finally going to die._

But Derek, determined to get us out, charged at the door. It cracked, but didn't budge. He backed up and charged at it again, and this time it flew open.

"Go!!" Derek yelled, and pushed me. I went flying, and landed on soft grass. I inhaled sweet, fresh air, air that cooled off my skin and let me breathe.

Greedy, I took deep breaths, taking in more fresh air. Derek was soon on the ground beside me, his hand over his eyes, taking deep, long breaths. In the background I could hear the fire cracking. The air smelled of smoke, but it was so much better than what was in the house. Never before had I been so thankful that I could breathe.

Once my breathing had gotten back to normal, and I knew that nothing was broken or badly burnt, I sat up, taking in my surroundings. The house was nearly gone by now, the second and top floors already eaten by the flames. Behind me the woods were dark and still, and at either side of me was nothing but what had been there the day before – green grass with patches of yellow at random.

Beside me, Derek groaned and sat up slowly, like it pained him to move.

"Are you okay?" I asked. I wasn't surprised to find that it hurt to talk.

Derek cleared his throat before saying, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. You?"

I nodded, and he attempted a smile. "Good," he said.

He put out his arm and handed me my necklace. I took it, gave it an once-over to see if it had been charred or chipped, but seemed to be in perfect condition. I put the necklace on, relief filling my body.

Until Derek said, "Where's everyone else?"

I hadn't realized that Simon, Andrew, Tori and the others' weren't out here with us. I knew that they should've been here, because Derek had said that he had woken them all up before waking Tori and I up. And yet….

I looked around once again, but was met by the same surroundings.

"They're… not here," I said.

Derek nodded, and stood up. "We should… leave," he said after a moment. "If no one's here, then that's a bad sign. Maybe, maybe something… came after them. Like a rabid dog," He said, but I could here the doubt in his voice.

"More like _someone,_" I said.

Derek turned to me. "You don't think that… The Edison Group are the ones who did this? That the took everyone once they came out of the house?"

I got the feeling that Derek was in shock, because he was genuinely surprised that I'd suggested that the Edison Group had done this.

"Yes Derek," I said. "It's a good explanation as to why the others' aren't here."

"As a matter of fact, it's a perfect explanation."

Derek tensed, going pale, his eyes placed above my head. Slowly, I turned around, afraid that if I did it quickly, whoever was behind me might pounce.

When I had made the full circle, I saw the Tori's mom was standing in front of me.


	2. Chapter 2

"You kids are extremely hard to catch. It's a good thing we brought more people this time, and bigger guns." Tori's mom smirked at us, as though she knew we didn't have a chance.

I stood up and backed away, only to bump into Derek. His hands grabbed both my shoulders, keeping me in place. I was suddenly reminded of the time when Derek and I were cornered by those werewolves – I felt just like I did then: hopeless, like there wasn't a possibility that we would escape.

"Now, children," she said, reaching into her pockets, "don't you even think of running away. One false move and –" she pulled out a gun from her coat pocket. "You both get your brains blown out."

I felt a shiver go up my spine. How many times had I been shot at? And how many of those times was the shooter right in front of me?

Again, that feeling of despair welled up inside me.

Did Derek and I stand a chance? Mrs. Enright was standing only a few feet away from us. Unless Derek could overpower her, just long enough for us to get away… But how?

Another memory came to me: of when we were first running away, and I had found Derek changing. When Dr. Gill had come out, I tried to distract her, but she didn't believe me and almost attacked me. Then Derek pounced, and when her head hit the concrete, he rendered her unconscious.

Maybe if we could do the same to Mrs. Enright, we would get away?

"Derek," I whispered, low enough for him to hear, but not for Tori's mom. "Tackle her, and take away her gun. And –" But I didn't get to finish, because Derek let go of me, and before Mrs. Enright realized what he was doing, he tackled her to the floor. As he did, I heard a gunshot, and instantly panicked.

Mrs. Enright and Derek wrestled for about thirty seconds before Derek got the gun and a walkie-talkie away from her.

"Run!" He yelled as he got up, and took off in the direction opposite of Mrs. Enright, towards the woods. I shot off immediately, following after him.

As I caught up to Derek, I saw that he was leaving a trail of blood. _But how…? The gun, _I realized. _Mrs. Enright shot him!_

"Derek!" I yelled. He looked behind himself at me, but didn't stop running. "You're bleeding!" I continued, pointing back at the trail.

This time he _did _stop, but only to check where his wound was. We were at the edges of the woods by now.

"She must've shot you," I said, panting. Derek only nodded, pressing down on his shoulder, blood oozing out in between his fingers.

I sighed with relief when I saw that it was only his shoulder.

"Did she get in pretty deep?" I asked.

"Yeah," Derek said in between deep breaths. I heard shouting in the distance, and saw a few figures running towards us. They were too far away for me to recognize the features, but I could still pick out the guns they were carrying.

"We gotta keep moving," Derek said, and began running again, this time into the woods.

I hesitated; what if we got lost? What if we tripped and fell over a tree root, and the Edison Group managed to catch us?

But there wasn't any time for questions, I knew we had to move _now. _So I ran after Derek into the woods. I could just barely see his silhouette in front of me, illuminated by the moonlight every time there was a break in the leaves. This made it easier for me to follow him, which I was grateful for.

Derek seemed to know not to run too fast, or else he'd lose me, because I managed to maintain a distance of only a few feet as we ran.

I could hear shouting only a few yards away now, and the hum of a car engine.

_They can't drive a car into the woods, _I tried to reassure myself. _There's not enough room._

Derek made a sharp turn to the right, and I did the same, nearly hitting the tree in front of me as I skidded.

Just my luck, though, as we were running, Derek jumped over a fallen log that I just happened to notice a moment too late.

I tripped and fell face first into the ground. I twisted, trying to get up, only to feel a stab of pain shoot up my foot and through my leg.

"Derek!" I screamed. He was a good ten yards away by now, but still heard me clearly. He turned, and when he saw me began running faster than before.

"I can't get up," I said when he neared me. He nodded, but didn't say anything. Instead, he knelt down and took my right arm and put it around his shoulders. He held my hand there with his left arm, and with his right wrapped his hand around my waist, then he hoisted me up.

The voices were getting dangerously close by now. So close that I thought I could pick out a few familiar voices. Tori's mom, and Dr. Davidoff were two voices that rang clear.

"Can you run?" Derek asked. I tried putting weight on my feet. My left foot felt fine, but my right one felt horrible.

"No," I said. "My right one hurts a lot; I think I twisted it."

Derek only nodded, and, before I could protest, picked me up bridal style and began running in the direction we were going before I tripped.

I didn't know what to think. All I knew was that I had hurt my foot, possibly even broken it, and here was Derek carrying me as he ran away from the Edison Group.

I decided to thank him later, when we weren't in mortal danger.

Derek made another sharp turn, going to the left this time. As he did this, my head snapped back and the side of my head hit a tree, scraping my cheek and jaw.

"Sorry," Derek grunted, but I didn't say anything. I was too busy fighting the dizzy feeling.

The farther we ran, the more distant the voices got, until I couldn't hear them anymore. But I guess Derek did, because he kept running for another ten minutes before he actually stopped and set me down, then sat down himself .

I silently thanked whoever was listening for Derek's super strength; without it we wouldn't have made it this far.

It took Derek a few minutes before he finally calmed down his breathing enough to say, "We should be safe here."

"I hope so," I said. I looked around myself, but all there was to see was the trees, and beyond that, darkness. Above was mostly darkness as well, except for the space in between the leaves, where the stars and slants of moonlight were visible. No one should be able to find us here; we were in too deep and it was too dark. We would be safe, at least for the night.

Derek placed his hands over his face, rubbing his eyes. He groaned. "I can't believe they burned down the house. Wait, yes, yes I can."

"What time is it?" I asked; it suddenly occurred to me that it could be anywhere from ten at night to four in the morning. Derek shrugged.

"My guess is as good as yours."

"Should we go to sleep, or rest for a little and then keep moving?"

"Where? Where would we go? Tori, Simon, Andrew… They've all been captured. We have no where else to go." He sounded just as hopeless as I had felt earlier, when Mrs. Enright was holding the gun on us.

But he was right. There was no where safe left for us. Any shelter would probably have spies for the Edison group, and staying in the woods wasn't going to do us any good for long.

I looked up at the nighttime sky through the blackened leaves, as if the answer to all our problems would be there, written in the stars.

"Let go of me!" the girl yelled as she was being pushed into the cell. "You bastards, I'll kill you for this!" The girl began to glow a dark blue color, but it soon faded away after the guard left her, locked up and all alone.

She looked around at her meager surroundings: there was a dirty toilet and a moldy sink to the left of her, and to her right was a small cot on the floor, complete with one thin blanket. It was obvious that the Edison Group wasn't playing nice guy anymore.

She shuddered at the thought of what they might do to her…

Simon was sitting in the cell across from hers, crying quietly.

"It's ok, Simon," she said, trying to comfort him. "I bet you Chloe and Derek managed to get away."

"Shut up, Tori," Simon said, his voice empty, emotionless. "You saw that house burn down; they're probably dead. And even if they're not, they probably wouldn't have gotten far. If they're not dead, then they're somewhere in this lab, experiencing what we are, or something worse."

Tori turned away, anger and sadness bubbling inside of her. She _tried _to be nice, but all she got was a moody Simon.

But could she blame him? His brother was gone, probably dead. And Chloe…

Tori was surprised to feel a jab of sadness at the thought of Chloe. She at first had hated the girl, but as their adventure went on, Chloe was the only one who was actually nice to her. It was almost unbelievable, to think of them gone. She had gotten so used to Chloe and Derek, not having them around her was like a dream.

Tori sighed, a long, deep sigh, and got up, making her way toward the cot. _Might as well get some sleep, _she thought, _while I still can._

But then, something happened to her. Tori felt a pain in her stomach, as though someone had punched her hard in the abdomonem . The wind was knocked out of her, and she fell to her knees. It suddenly became hard for her to breathe, and it felt as though she were on fire. She began seeing things, things that she'd never seen before.

A woman with dark red hair ballroom dancing with a man who had light brown hair. The same woman, laughing at a joke her friend told. And the redhead yet again, but this time she was… lighting someone on fire. She had simply looked at them, and then… they lit up like Christmas lights.

As she saw all this, Tori felt like the very person burning in those images. Then, amongst all those weird images, she heard a voice in her head, loud and clear.

"You'll be leaving now. Maybe I'll switch back when I'm done, but for now, goodbye." It was the woman, Tori realized, the woman with the red hair.

Tori screamed, and, after hours of pain it seemed, she felt herself being lifted up into the air.

Breathing deeply, she looked around herself and realized she was still in the cell. But now she was higher up, in the air. She was floating.

_Oh, my God… _She thought. _What __**happened **__to me?!_

She looked down below her, and there, lying on the ground where she should've been, was a naked woman who looked to be in her late twenties, with the same fair skin and dark red hair as the woman in the vision.

The woman stirred, and opened her stormy grey eyes.


End file.
